Saturday, March 26, 2016

THE COMPLETE CAMPAGNOLO ELECTA SADDLE GUIDE

The next piece of my Rossin arrived this week. I always wanted a Campy Electa saddle, and it doesn't disappoint! I got a great price on this ti-railed black Electa (SD-10EL) on eBay a couple of weeks ago and was getting a bit nervous when it didn't arrive immediately.

There is some conflicting or incomplete information on the origins of the "Airdea" pneumatic saddle out there. One side attributes the design to a Swiss racer named Silvio Fant, while another claims Fugazzi made it. Here are a couple of images of said versions. My thought is that Fant may have designed it and taken it to Fugazzi for production, who in turn licensed the design to Campagnolo and produced the Electa. Regardless, these things go from $250 - $900 (yes, that guy) on eBay. There's a lovely red version being sold right now at a reasonable price, should I decide that two would be almost enough.

Mine holds air quite well, and the air pump was included, along with the box. No instructions, however, so I dug around and found the ones shown here, along with suggested pressure chart, anticipating full suspension charts by quite a few years). I also found the letter shown below from my archives, which seems to be a Campy USA letter introducing the saddle for the trade shows at the time.

From one of my first trade shows, probably CABDA when I was still a bike shop rat. Seems to be first-year introduction, as there is no mention of the titanium version.